Miles Morales is the name of the new Spiderman that will take the place of Peter Parker in the wake of his death in the relaunch of the “Ultimate: Spiderman” series.

The interesting thing about Miles is that he will be half African American and half Latino.

It was a bit shocking to read that someone of African American descent would take on the position of one of the most prominent superheroes of the 20th century.

In the comic book world, African American people are spread few and far apart. You can count the prominent black superheroes on one hand.

I’m happy the writers of the series decided to take such an initiative and create Miles, but having him step into Peter Parker’s shoes can easily go good or bad for a couple of reasons.

One way it could bad, is people may have a hard time accepting Miles in the place of Peter Parker. Some may feel they only killed Peter to place a black character in an attempt to gain more readers.

Another way people may feel insulted is they created and made him Spiderman instead of giving him his own comic and creating an original hero.

Now getting off the bad and into the good, there are several reasons why it’s good they created Miles.

Miles is the first prominent black male character that has had such potential to make an impact. I feel that it is good he is a hero rather than a villain.

I believe Miles will help younger African American kids to relate and see themselves more in this character. This is a huge positive in a world where there are so few positive role models for kids to look up to.

Only time will tell what the outcome of Miles Morales will be, but regardless of what happens, at least this proves, in my opinion, that times are changing.

Miles Morales will debut September 2011 in the new “Ultimate: Spiderman” from Marvel comics.